Nightmare Abbey
by Thomas Love Peacock
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Nightmare Abbey is a satirical novel, poking fun at the morbid obsessions of romantic literature. Peacock also took the opportunity to caricature and pillory actual historical figures. It centers around the melancholy gentleman and his son who inhabit Nightmare Abbey, their array of guests, and their depressing servants..
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I read Nightmare Abbey because it came up as a recommendation for people who liked Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, a novel I read and loved earlier this year. While the two novels do have similarities, I found Nightmare Abbey to be much more like Candide in its skewering of the Romantic movement.
This one will probably be best appreciated by people who are pretty familiar with the Romantics, as Peacock makes many references to a number of Romantic works and based most of his characters on some of the leading names of the movement, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron. Although knowing all of the allusions aren't necessary for enjoying the book, which has some great passages, the Wikipedia show more page can help with some of the more esoteric passages.
While Nightmare Abbey wasn't the book I was expecting it to be, I did enjoy the book that it is. It will never be one of my all-time favorites, but its wit, and short length, will probably have me rereading it in the future. show less
This one will probably be best appreciated by people who are pretty familiar with the Romantics, as Peacock makes many references to a number of Romantic works and based most of his characters on some of the leading names of the movement, including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron. Although knowing all of the allusions aren't necessary for enjoying the book, which has some great passages, the Wikipedia show more page can help with some of the more esoteric passages.
While Nightmare Abbey wasn't the book I was expecting it to be, I did enjoy the book that it is. It will never be one of my all-time favorites, but its wit, and short length, will probably have me rereading it in the future. show less
Young Scythrop Glowry lives with his father in a desolate castle, his bitter mother having died suddenly, to his father's joy. Scythrop recently graduated from a university, where his head was filled with nothing but he picked up the habit of drinking too much. Both Scythrop and his father enjoy the miserable things in life, but Scythrop is young and quickly falls in love with Emily, who quickly marries another, leaving Scythorpe in a romantic depression. When his father's many miserable friends come to visit, there also arrives beautiful and cruel Marionetta, and The Honourable Mr. Listless, who lies on the sofa reading, as doing any more is too taxing.
Published in 1818, this is a satire of the Gothic romance novels that were popular show more at the time. The characters are thinly veiled caricatures of Lord Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth. show less
Published in 1818, this is a satire of the Gothic romance novels that were popular show more at the time. The characters are thinly veiled caricatures of Lord Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth. show less
Thomas Love Peacock was well known for writing satires. Nightmare Abbey is perhaps the best known among all of Peacock’s works. It was published in the year 1818.
Nightmare Abbey is a satire on the trend of writing Gothic fiction and the Romantic Movement in English literature.
It is the story of Christopher Glowry and his son Scythrop Glowry. They reside in the aforementioned Nightmare Abbey. Christopher Glowry is a melancholic person and surrounds himself with people with melancholic names and/or faces. His son Scythrop dabbles with bizarre and complex philosophical ideas and wants to change the world, though he does not know how he’ll actually manage to do that. His philosophical ambitions are constantly interrupted by his rather show more troublesome habit of falling in love. The constant barrage of visitors who file in and out of Nightmare Abbey doesn’t help matters either.
Peacock pokes fun at his contemporary poets and novelists for their obsession with everything that’s depressing. Mr. Hilary, who is essentially a representative of Peacock’s voice in the story, calls this a “conspiracy against cheerfulness”. For example, Mr. Flosky proclaims about modern literature,
“Very true, sir. Modern literature is a north-east wind--a blight of the human soul. I take credit to myself for having helped to make it so. The way to produce fine fruit is to blight the flower. You call this a paradox. Marry, so be it. Ponder thereon.”
The whole chapter in which Marionetta tries to get Mr. Flosky to divulge information about Scythrop’s mysterious behavior is actually an example of Peacock’s criticism of contemporary philosophical thoughts. Thoughts that centered around the obscure and the complex. The round about way Mr. Flosky goes about answering (more like not answering) her questions is frustrating to say the least.
Most of the characters are said to have been based upon Peacock’s own circle of friends and acquaintances. Scythrop Glowry was apparently based on Peacock’s friend poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mr. Ferdinando Flosky is supposed to be a parody of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Toobad is said to have been based upon J. F. Newton and Mr. Listless upon Lumley Skeffington, both friends of Shelley’s and Mr. Cypress on Lord Byron.
None of the characters stand out as they are used as mere mouth pieces to voice Peacock’s opinions about everything.
Thoughts and beliefs seem to matter much more to Peacock than personal interactions among his characters and human emotions. Lengthy conversations are a part of the narrative. Some of it, I dare say, is very funny. But the action, of what little action there is, is much funnier than that. I wish there was more of that (action) in Nightmare Abbey. But of course, Peacock’s goal was to satirize the contemporary literary practices and philosophical ideas, not to write a rollicking comedy just to entertain us.
The book is so full of references to the literature, philosophy and politics of that time that it has now become outdated.
But having said that some parts of the book are simply hilarious. I actually laughed out loud several times.
For instance about Scythrop’s education Peacock says,
“When Scythrop grew up, he was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him; and he was sent home like a well-threshed ear of corn, with nothing in his head: having finished his education to the high satisfaction of the master and fellows of his college,...”
And there is this amusing passage about the habit of reading and college education,
“He had some taste for romance reading before he went to the university, where, we must confess, in justice to his college, he was cured of the love of reading in all its shapes; and the cure would have been radical, if disappointment in love, and total solitude, had not conspired to bring on a relapse.”
And after becoming disillusioned with love and life in general, our hero contemplates suicide and has the following exchange with his butler, who is aptly named Raven,
“Shall I bring your dinner here?'
'Yes.'
'What will you have?'
'A pint of port and a pistol.'(14)
'A pistol!'
'And a pint of port. I will make my exit like Werter...
... 'Yes; and the dinner is getting cold. There is a time for every
thing under the sun. You may as well dine first, and be miserable
afterwards.'
'True, Raven. There is something in that. I will take your advice:
therefore, bring me----'
'The port and the pistol?'
'No; the boiled fowl and Madeira.”
If I go on quoting passages that I found funny I would probably end up quoting nearly half of the book. In fact I’m not quoting the passage which made me laugh the hardest because it is a rather large one.
Nightmare Abbey does seem pretty dated. Some of the rather lengthy commentary on philosophy and life and society are frankly boring. But Peacock’s sharp wit and funny characters caught in comically dramatic situations more than make up for that. Besides the book is so short that it ends almost before it begins. Recommended for being (for the most part) a very, very funny and quick read. show less
Nightmare Abbey is a satire on the trend of writing Gothic fiction and the Romantic Movement in English literature.
It is the story of Christopher Glowry and his son Scythrop Glowry. They reside in the aforementioned Nightmare Abbey. Christopher Glowry is a melancholic person and surrounds himself with people with melancholic names and/or faces. His son Scythrop dabbles with bizarre and complex philosophical ideas and wants to change the world, though he does not know how he’ll actually manage to do that. His philosophical ambitions are constantly interrupted by his rather show more troublesome habit of falling in love. The constant barrage of visitors who file in and out of Nightmare Abbey doesn’t help matters either.
Peacock pokes fun at his contemporary poets and novelists for their obsession with everything that’s depressing. Mr. Hilary, who is essentially a representative of Peacock’s voice in the story, calls this a “conspiracy against cheerfulness”. For example, Mr. Flosky proclaims about modern literature,
“Very true, sir. Modern literature is a north-east wind--a blight of the human soul. I take credit to myself for having helped to make it so. The way to produce fine fruit is to blight the flower. You call this a paradox. Marry, so be it. Ponder thereon.”
The whole chapter in which Marionetta tries to get Mr. Flosky to divulge information about Scythrop’s mysterious behavior is actually an example of Peacock’s criticism of contemporary philosophical thoughts. Thoughts that centered around the obscure and the complex. The round about way Mr. Flosky goes about answering (more like not answering) her questions is frustrating to say the least.
Most of the characters are said to have been based upon Peacock’s own circle of friends and acquaintances. Scythrop Glowry was apparently based on Peacock’s friend poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mr. Ferdinando Flosky is supposed to be a parody of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Mr. Toobad is said to have been based upon J. F. Newton and Mr. Listless upon Lumley Skeffington, both friends of Shelley’s and Mr. Cypress on Lord Byron.
None of the characters stand out as they are used as mere mouth pieces to voice Peacock’s opinions about everything.
Thoughts and beliefs seem to matter much more to Peacock than personal interactions among his characters and human emotions. Lengthy conversations are a part of the narrative. Some of it, I dare say, is very funny. But the action, of what little action there is, is much funnier than that. I wish there was more of that (action) in Nightmare Abbey. But of course, Peacock’s goal was to satirize the contemporary literary practices and philosophical ideas, not to write a rollicking comedy just to entertain us.
The book is so full of references to the literature, philosophy and politics of that time that it has now become outdated.
But having said that some parts of the book are simply hilarious. I actually laughed out loud several times.
For instance about Scythrop’s education Peacock says,
“When Scythrop grew up, he was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him; and he was sent home like a well-threshed ear of corn, with nothing in his head: having finished his education to the high satisfaction of the master and fellows of his college,...”
And there is this amusing passage about the habit of reading and college education,
“He had some taste for romance reading before he went to the university, where, we must confess, in justice to his college, he was cured of the love of reading in all its shapes; and the cure would have been radical, if disappointment in love, and total solitude, had not conspired to bring on a relapse.”
And after becoming disillusioned with love and life in general, our hero contemplates suicide and has the following exchange with his butler, who is aptly named Raven,
“Shall I bring your dinner here?'
'Yes.'
'What will you have?'
'A pint of port and a pistol.'(14)
'A pistol!'
'And a pint of port. I will make my exit like Werter...
... 'Yes; and the dinner is getting cold. There is a time for every
thing under the sun. You may as well dine first, and be miserable
afterwards.'
'True, Raven. There is something in that. I will take your advice:
therefore, bring me----'
'The port and the pistol?'
'No; the boiled fowl and Madeira.”
If I go on quoting passages that I found funny I would probably end up quoting nearly half of the book. In fact I’m not quoting the passage which made me laugh the hardest because it is a rather large one.
Nightmare Abbey does seem pretty dated. Some of the rather lengthy commentary on philosophy and life and society are frankly boring. But Peacock’s sharp wit and funny characters caught in comically dramatic situations more than make up for that. Besides the book is so short that it ends almost before it begins. Recommended for being (for the most part) a very, very funny and quick read. show less
Another great comedy and social satire. I previously read Crotchett Castle by the same author which is also really good. The characters in this arn't as various as those in Crotchett, this one is all about Goth. And i mean that in the modern sense, most of the characters really like being depressed, and you have people like Mr. Toobad and Mr. Listless.
Its very well written and has great back and forth conversations. It also didn't have as many words i had to look up as Crotchett Castle. I was so into it and it flows so nice that i nearly finished it in a single day, its good stuff.
Its very well written and has great back and forth conversations. It also didn't have as many words i had to look up as Crotchett Castle. I was so into it and it flows so nice that i nearly finished it in a single day, its good stuff.
The short, satirical novels of Thomas Love Peacock are unlike any other genre. They are often recognized as "novels", but they also have characteristics of drama or colloquia. They do not have a plot, but consist of pleasant and often humorous conversations. In these short novels, Peacock satirized his contemporaries and issues of his day. Despite the fact that most of the satire is lost on the average twenty-first century reader, they are still very readable, and might even provoke an occasional smile, but from what I understand they may have provoked bulderous laughter in their own day.
Nightmare Abbey (1818) is the most famous of Peacock's short novels. Thomas Love Peacock was a contemporary and friend of most of the Romantic poets show more and their circle. In Nightmare Abbey some of these poets appear in disguise, Percy Bysshe Shelley as “Scythrop Glowry,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge as “Mr Ferdinando Flosky” and, Lord Byron in as “Mr Cypress” but I must admit that I did not recognize them as such. According to the introduction, Shelley is reported to have said that his house was instantly recognisable in the story, but I suppose it would require a great deal of biographical information to see through that. In fact, Raymond Wright writes that (at least in 1986, i.e. when the introduction was written) many of the side characters in Peacock's novels had not yet been identified.
However, as I said before, all that literary criticism can be left for what it is, and these short novels can be enjoyed in their own right, with an occasional chuckle. show less
Nightmare Abbey (1818) is the most famous of Peacock's short novels. Thomas Love Peacock was a contemporary and friend of most of the Romantic poets show more and their circle. In Nightmare Abbey some of these poets appear in disguise, Percy Bysshe Shelley as “Scythrop Glowry,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge as “Mr Ferdinando Flosky” and, Lord Byron in as “Mr Cypress” but I must admit that I did not recognize them as such. According to the introduction, Shelley is reported to have said that his house was instantly recognisable in the story, but I suppose it would require a great deal of biographical information to see through that. In fact, Raymond Wright writes that (at least in 1986, i.e. when the introduction was written) many of the side characters in Peacock's novels had not yet been identified.
However, as I said before, all that literary criticism can be left for what it is, and these short novels can be enjoyed in their own right, with an occasional chuckle. show less
This was surprisingly fun, completely ridiculous, and I wish I had understood more of the references.
In 2015 The Guardian published a list of the 100 best novels published in English, listed in chronological order of publication. Under Covid inspired lockdown, I have taken up the challenge.
This is book 9 in the chronological listing. Short, novella more than novel, and quite different from earlier books. This is a bit of fun, nudging the ribs of the various stereotypes in gentle society of the times (published in 1818).
As an aside, many of the early books in this list portray love affairs of the upper class of England at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, one would have to say that the mating habits of the time and class seem uniformly ineffective in every way. The pool of possible partners is so small; the capacity to get to show more know prospective spouses is so limited; and the influence of parents and others so inordinately large, that it is a wonder that Britain survived the era and became a world power! show less
This is book 9 in the chronological listing. Short, novella more than novel, and quite different from earlier books. This is a bit of fun, nudging the ribs of the various stereotypes in gentle society of the times (published in 1818).
As an aside, many of the early books in this list portray love affairs of the upper class of England at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, one would have to say that the mating habits of the time and class seem uniformly ineffective in every way. The pool of possible partners is so small; the capacity to get to show more know prospective spouses is so limited; and the influence of parents and others so inordinately large, that it is a wonder that Britain survived the era and became a world power! show less
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Author Information
72+ Works 1,794 Members
Thomas Love Peacock was born on October 18, 1785. He was largely self-educated and worked most of his life for the East India Company. During this time, he mastered Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Welsh. He became chief examiner in 1836 and retired on a pension in 1856. He wrote seven novels during his lifetime including Headlong Hall, show more Melincourt, Nightmare Abbey, Crotchet Castle, and Gryll Grange. He died on January 23, 1866 at the age of 81 from injuries sustained in a fire in which he had attempted to save his library. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Nightmare Abbey
- Original title
- Nightmare Abbey
- Original publication date
- 1818
- People/Characters
- Mr Christopher Glowry, Esquire; Scythrop Glowry; Mr Ferdinando Flosky; Mr Toobad; Miss Marionetta Celestina O'Carroll; Miss Celinda Toobad (show all 14); The Honourable Mr Listless; Mr Hilary; Mrs Hilary; Reverend Mr Larynx; Fatout; Raven; Mr Asterias; Mr Cypress
- Important places
- Nightmare Abbey
- Epigraph
- There's a dark lantern of the spirit,
Which none see by but those who bear it,
That makes them in the dark see visions
And hag themselves with apparitions,
Find racks for their own minds, and vaunt
Of their own... (show all) misery and want.
BUTLER
MATTHEW. Oh! it's your only fine humour, sir. Your true melancholy breeds your perfect fine wit, sir. I am melancholy myself, divers times, sir: and and then I do no more but take pen and paper presently, and overflow you hal... (show all)f a score or a dozen of sonnets at a sitting.
STEPHEN. Truly,sir, and I love such things out of measure.
MATTHEW. Why, I pray you, sir, make use of my study: it's at your service.
STEPHEN. I thank you, sir, I shall be bold, I warrant you. Have you a stool there, to be melancholy upon!
BEN JONSON, Every Man in his Humour, Act 3, Sc 1 - First words
- Nightmare Abbey, a venerable family-mansion, in a highly picturesque state of semi-dilapidation, pleasantly situated on a strip of dry land between the sea and the fens, at the verge of the county of Lincoln, had the honour t... (show all)o be the seat of Christopher Glowry, Esquire.
- Quotations
- When Scythrop grew up, he was sent, as usual, to a public school, where a little learning was painfully beaten into him, and from thence to the university, where it was carefully taken out of him; and he was sent home like a ... (show all)well-threshed ear of corn, with nothing in his head: having finished his education to the high satisfaction of the master and fellows of his college,...
He had some taste for romance reading before he went to the university, where, we must confess, in justice to his college, he was cured of the love of reading in all its shapes; and the cure would have been radical, if disapp... (show all)ointment in love, and total solitude, had not conspired to bring on a relapse.
The tower which Scythrop inhabited stood at the south-eastern angle of the Abbey; and, on the southern side, the foot of the tower opened on a terrace, which was called the garden, though nothing grew on it but ivy, and a few... (show all) amphibious weeds. The south-western tower, which was ruinous and full of owls, might, with equal propriety, have been called the aviary.
MR FLOSKY: Very true, sir. Modern literature is a north-east wind--a blight of the human soul. I take credit to myself for having helped to make it so. The way to produce fine fruit is to blight the flower. You call th... (show all)is a paradox. Marry, so be it. Ponder thereon.
Raven: The Honourable Mr Listless is gone. He declared that, what with family quarrels in the morning, and ghosts at night, he could get neither sleep nor peace; and that the agitation was too much for his nerves: thou... (show all)gh Mr Glowry assured him that the ghost was only poor Crow walking in his sleep, and that the shroud and bloody turban were a sheet and a red nightcap.
Raven: The Reverend Mr Larynx has been called off on duty, to marry or bury (I don't know which) some unfortunate person or persons, at Claydyke:...
If we go on in this way, we shall have a new art of poetry, of which one of the first rules will be: To remember to forget that there are any such things as sunshine and music in the world.
Misanthropy is sometimes the product of disappointed benevolence; but it is more frequently the offspring of overweening and mortified vanity, quarreling with the world for not being better treated than it deserves.
Ardent spirits cannot but be dissatisfied with things as they are; and, according to their views of the probabilities of amelioration, they will rush into the extremes of either hope or despair-of which the first is enthusias... (show all)m, and the second misanthropy...
...the ancient Odyssey, which held forth such a shining example of the endurance of real misfortune, will give place to a modern one, setting out a more instructive picture of querulous impatience under imaginary evils.
The devil has come among us, and has begun by taking possession of all the cleverest fellows.
But now the little wisdom and genius we have seem to be entering into a conspiracy against cheerfulness. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Scythrop looked at him very fiercely two or three minutes; and Raven, still remembering the pistol, stood quaking in mute apprehension, till Scythrop , pointing significantly towards the dining-room, said, 'Bring some Madeira.'
- Original language*
- Inglés
- Disambiguation notice
- Please do not combine single editions of Nightmare Abbey with the book called Nightmare Abbey and Crotchet Castle
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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